History of Eastern Christianity: The Church after the Soviet Union and the Arabic Spring

History of Eastern Christianity: The Church after the Soviet Union and the Arabic Spring

7.5 credits

7.5 credits

Spring semester 2019

The course provides a deeper understanding of the development of Eastern Christianity, with a special emphasis on the development in the late twentieth century and the early twenty-first. The course takes into account especially how the fall of the Soviet Union and the Arabic Spring was influenced by the eastern churches, and how it affected them. Furthermore, the course provides an introduction to methods in church history with a particular emphasis on the historical-critical methods, source criticism and archive research.

At the end of the course, the student is expected to:

be able to describe the various Eastern Christian Churches and their involvement in the political events

display considerable insight in understanding how theology may have an impact on political events

demonstrate a thorough knowledge of the History of Eastern Christianity after the fall of Constantinople to the present day with particular emphasis on the development after the fall of the USSR, the development associated with the Arabic Spring, and the recent events in Ukraine

display competence in handling key methodological issues in church history and be able to make a critical analysis of a source text.